Ever-increasing competition for employment in the field of education and in many other professional areas has stimulated the need for a more efficient and informative approach to job interviews. Traditionally, professional job applicants in the teaching field and elsewhere prepare a brief written resume of their past professional experience, education, special training, extracurricular activities, publications, and frequently a photograph of the applicant. Such resumes have only limited value in introducing the hopeful job candidate to a potential employer. The resume does little or nothing to highlight the real competencies of the candidate or demonstrate performance skills. Hopefully, these factors can be brought forth during a subsequent job interview with the potential employer. However, under the pressures inherent in such an interview, and in the very limited time usually allowed for the interview, the candidate, unless very skilled in interview procedure, generally falls far short of adequately demonstrating his or her skills and competencies in a given professional field.
Therefore, the present invention directs itself to completely satisfying the above-stated need for a means of adequately reflecting the background and the abilities of a professional job candidate, in lieu of or in addition to the traditional personal resume and subsequent oral interview. The means of accomplishing the above in accordance with the invention is embodied in a relatively simplified, orderly and well thought out portfolio which contains necessary writings in notebook form, viewing slides for a narrative program, audio cassette tapes and videotapes, all pertaining to the job candidate, whether a prospective teacher, artist, actor or other professional. While the invention is keyed to the needs of teachers and advanced student teachers in various disciplines, such as education and communication arts, it is equally useful in many other fields.
The portfolio is made up as a convenient unit which includes a protective carrying case for its components, enabling it to be taken by the job applicant to an interview for demonstration purposes, or to be delivered to the prospective employer when it is impossible or impractical for the candidate to appear. In either case, the audiovisual portfolio is far more effective in demonstrating the unique personal capabilities of the job candidate than the traditional procedure of a brief written resume and following interview, usually without proper planning, rehearsal, and the bringing together of truly representative materials reflective of job skills and competencies.
While the known prior art contains various teachings relating to personal compartmentalized carrying cases for a variety of articles and purposes, no known prior art device suggests the concept embodied in this invention or the capabilities and purposes of the invention set forth above.
To comply with the requirements under 37 C.F.R. 1.56, the following prior United States patents of some general interest only are made of record herein:
3,133,631, 3,823,491, 3,376,962, 3,823,814, 3,583,729, 3,829,132, 3,968,573 .